Biography of Ann Curry

Ann Curry is a well-known American journalist and news anchor working in NBC. Go through her biography to know more about this famous woman.

Parul Solanki

An American television journalist and news anchor, Ann Curry is an anchor on NBC's television program 'Today' and the host for 'Dateline News'. Born on November 19, 1956 to an American father and a Japanese mother in Guam, success for this award-winning journalist was no cakewalk.

Family

Her father Bob Curry was an American of predominantly French and Scot-Irish descent who met her Japanese mother, Hiroe Nagase during the U.S. occupation of Japan. Since the U.S. military code of conduct forbade their marriage, Curry's father returned to Japan after two years to marry her mother.

Education

The couple relocated frequently, so Curry did not remain in one school for more than two years, traveling to various locations like San Diego, Alameda, Oregon, and Virginia. She finally graduated from Ashland high school.

College for Curry was an impossible dream, being the oldest of her five siblings, and faced with a difficult financial situation at home. However, without losing heart, she worked her way to college doing small odd jobs and finally with the support of her parents and professors, her determination paid off, and she graduated with a BA in journalism from the University of Oregon in 1978.

Career

She paved her way for a successful career, when she began her broadcasting career, as an intern in KTVL Channel 10 in Medford, Oregon, eventually becoming the first female news reporter at the station at the age of 22. She subsequently moved to the position of an anchor and reporter at KGW, an NBC affiliate in Portland, Oregan. Four years later, she moved to Los Angeles as a reporter for KCBS-TV. It was during her association with this channel for six years, that she received two Emmy Awards.

In 1990, Ann Curry moved to NBC initially working as the channel's Chicago correspondent, and later anchoring NBC Sunrise from 1991 to 1996. Still working as the replacement anchor and newsreader for Today show, she joined Stone Phillips as the co-host of Dateline NBC in 2005.

Her courage and determination as well as her excellent interviewing skills have earned her great journalistic respect. She has landed several exclusive interviews with notable personalities like General Tommy Franks before the war over Iraq, the Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir, and Chadian President Idrsiss Deby. Her other notable interviews being with politician and conservatist Al Gore and the mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg. Along with this, she has also gained reputation for her coverage of several humanitarian crisis from hotspots like Baghdad, Sri Lanka, Rwanda, and Darfur.

Ann Curry is married to the software professional Brian Ross and has two children, daughter Mackenzie and son Walker. After her sister Jean and mother succumbed to cancer, Curry joined Susan B. Komen's foundation for fight against breast cancer. She was recently in the news regarding her May 2009 interview with Brad Pitt where Curry is reported to have asked personal questions and even touched him several times including once on his chin.

Notwithstanding the criticism that this hard-nosed journalist receives, she would always be a role model for all the women who are in the field of journalism. Guided by her dreams, she shook off the hurdles in her path to become one of the most known faces of television journalism today.